


Gaggle

by Chysgoda



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/M, Gen, and then there was a little crunch, minor but there, patch 5.2 spoilers, summer shenanigans, this was supposed to be all soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25647910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chysgoda/pseuds/Chysgoda
Summary: There have always been fireworks in the summer. He should know as the original crafter.
Relationships: Igeyorhm/Lahabrea (Final Fantasy XIV)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 10
Collections: Summer Fic Exchange 2020





	Gaggle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Neila_Nuruodo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neila_Nuruodo/gifts).



Gaggle

A gaggle was a good word for a group of children Lahabrea thought as he considered the regents on the table in front of him. In a field just outside the city he had created a large workbench on which were strewn his working materials for this project. Little black hoods and little white masks would stand on tiptoe to peek at his work. Occasionally one of the older children would bend down and then a pink face that was too young for a mask would stare wide-eyed as his sure hands worked with the metallic salts and fire crystals. 

A small hand reached out to touch a fire crystal that currently was burning green. The high pitched thwack of a slap landing on flesh was followed by a surprised and offended cry. Lahabrea made sure to meet each and every set of eyes with a disappointed glare. He let the tension build as the children squirmed before speaking, “If anyone tries something like that again all of you will be sent back into the city. Am I understood?” He continued to glare until every head was nodding. He smiled to release the tension and chuckled when young shoulders all dropped with relief. “Now, who can tell me why the crystal is exhibiting that color of flame?”

“Not lessons on a rest day!” One of the boys groaned. He grunted when one of his friends elbowed him in the side. 

“You chose to come out here young Hades, and I am hardly giving marks.” Lahabrea scolded gently. He was careful to keep the smile off his face when Hythlodaeus whispered something in his friend’s ear. On the other side of the workbench, a girl raised her hand and bounced trying to get his attention. “Yes, Daphne?”

“Is it because of that stuff you set the crystal in?” The girl asked as she fidgeted with pale blue hair that spilled out from her hood. 

“A very good deduction,” the Speaker praised and only just held back a fond chuckle when the girl preened. “The ‘stuff’ is a copper salt. A flame test can be used, in some cases, to identify some unknown substances. There are other uses for this knowledge however,” he took a pinch of the mixture in front of him and tossed it into the air. A thought and a breath of wind aether pushed the particles to a safe distance before a spark of fire ignited and caused a shower of green and gold sparks. Around the table, the children watched with wide eyes and delighted laughs. Even dour young Hades had bright eyes watching the display. 

“Is this for the Founders Festival?” Hythlodaeus asked. The boy was standing on tiptoe to get a better look at the professor’s regents. 

“That it is. Do you know why I am doing this mechanically rather than with just creation magic?” Lahabrea pulled the materials for the shells towards him so that he could begin assembly. Carefully he took a moment to craft suppressing wards around the explosive materials and then began to work. He glanced around the table taking in the puzzled looks and shaking heads. “Every year each Convocation member is expected to contribute something to the festival that was made with as little aetherial intervention as possible.”

“But why?” A girl he didn’t know cocked her head to the side. She was newly arrived and seemed to have been adopted by Hades and Hythlodaeus. 

“Because once we did not have control of creation magic as we do now.” His hands settled into a rhythm as he spoke. “Once it was safer to make things we needed mechanically than to risk disaster from uncontrollable magic. So now we remind ourselves of how far we have come by using the methods our ancestors did.”

He finished the rockets he had been working on and considered the leftover regents. “Well, I guess that is all for today younglings.” 

The children groaned in collective disappointment. He smiled and held a hand over the remnants of his project. He let his eyes fall half-closed as he visualized what he wanted. He mixed his will and aether and then released it to sweep up the metallic dust. Wind swirled out and the metal ignited painting the form of a horse that reared on the table. The construct leaped over the children to run free down and fade into smoke. The children squealed and clapped and begged for more. Lahabrea smiled, a few more purely aetheric fireworks would not hurt anyone. 

—

Igeyorhm smirked as she watched the last parent leave the Speaker’s office. He was going to be in such a foul mood after that. She knocked on the doorframe to get his attention and simply ignored the grumpy glare. “You have no one to blame but yourself.”

“It was a valuable demonstration of creation magic.” Lahabrea’s usually smooth voice rasped and behind the eye sockets of his mask was the telltale purpling that came with too little sleep. 

“Is that so?” Igeyorhm said mildly and closed the door. She dropped into one of the chairs opposite his desk. “And it would not have anything to do with big eyes and heartfelt pleas for just one more which stretched out until a bell before dawn. By which point all of their parents were frantic with worry?” 

Lahabrea plucked his mask off and dropped it on the desk. He pressed the heels of his hands into the purple bags under his eye. “I don’t see what the fuss is about. They were all perfectly safe.”

“This isn’t an area where logic has much sway.” Igeyorhm gentled her tone just a touch. “Are you setting off the fireworks tonight or are you delegating that to one of your interns?”

“Delegating, I should not be working with explosives today.” Lahabrea shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

Igeyorhm smiled and moved around his desk to perch on the edge next to his elbow. She softly pushed back his hood so that she could card her fingers through his blond locks. “Then come home and we’ll watch from the balcony with that bottle of wine Elidibus gave you after his last trip.”

Lahabrea’s forehead smoothed as he looked up into green eyes and blue hair. He rested a hand on her thigh. “And see where it goes from there?”

Her green eyes danced with mirth. “And see where it goes from there.”

—

There was always some kind of festival when the founder's festival should have been. Some years it gave him hope that his people would truly be able to recover once rejoined. Other years it drove him into the rift and the comfort of darkness until the merrymaking passed and the misery that was mortal existence resumed. This year was somewhere in between. In a stolen body he leaned against a stone wall. Heat from the day seeped into the vessels back and he watched a gaggle of children. (still a good word even thousands of years later.) Multi-colored sparks reflected in small bright eyes and delighted smiles. 

“So here is where you’re hiding.” The familiar voice pulled him out of his musings. He looked up and a smile escaped him despite himself. Igeyorhm has been quick to master the ability to shape the flesh of her vessels to her taste.  _ Soon, soon you will be whole _ , he promised himself. A shine in the crook of her arm pulled his eyes to the bottle cradled in the crook of her arm. She smiled for him and held out the bottle for his inspection. “Our dearest Heart gave me this and bid me to ensure that you found rest in body and spirit on this night.”

For once his host’s reputation as an unrepentant flirt was not a burden. He caught her wrist and pulled her closer. “Ever the worrier our heart.” 

Igeyorhm’s green eyes danced with mirth. Her voice dropped to a silken whisper. “This vessel has an apartment in the city, doesn’t he? Let us retire there.”

“And see where things go?” Lahabrea echoed words from so very long ago. He let his shattered lady pull him along and glanced up as another firework burst over the city. Some day he’d make them again for children that were once again whole and hale. Someday day his lady love would be as she was. 

“And see where things go from there,” Igeyorhm smirked at him and stopped to tease him with a kiss on his cheek. Soon they would all be whole, after the Ardor, after their Lord was freed and the world set to rights. Soon these midsummer festivities were returned to the Founder’s festival and wine no longer tasted more of water than grape. 

Until then he would let the memory of bright eyes reflecting colored sparks drive him towards the next rejoining. 

**Author's Note:**

> sooooooooo I'm not sure I hit the prompt just right? I hope you like it!


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